Using Rosa Parks

The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is the founder and president of two dynamic organizations: BOND (Brotherhood Organization Of A New Destiny), a national 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization dedicated to "Rebuilding the Family by Rebuilding the Man," and BOND Action, a 501(c) (4) organization whose purpose is to educate, motivate and rally Americans – especially black Americans – to greater involvement in the moral, cultural and political issues that threaten our great country. In 2011, Jesse founded The South Central L.A. Tea Party. He's a media commentator and also hosts "The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show" M-F, 6-9 a.m. Pacific, 9-Noon Eastern (weekend show airs every Saturday on AM 870 "The Answer," 2-3 p.m. PST/5-6 p.m. EST), and is the author of "SCAM: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America." For more information, visit www.bondinfo.org or www.bondaction.org. Also, check out the BOND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, a school for boys and girls grades 1-12 at www.bondleadershipacademy.org.

Rosa Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, sharing the tribute bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and other national leaders. Her funeral lasted seven hours!

Jesse Jackson – of all people – delivered the eulogy, and called for a life-size statue of Rosa Parks to be erected in the halls of Congress.

I have no issue with Rosa Parks. But I do have an issue with liberals trying to canonize her in order to glorify themselves, and legitimize their route to “progress” through political and racial agitation instead of hard work and character.

Current liberal black leaders have accomplished nothing of value. They are like parasites, living off the legacy of Dr. King. In contrast, the black and white freedom fighters of the civil-rights era were men and women of character.

Jesse Jackson and other liberal black leaders never encourage black Americans to do better. They’re motivated by greed for power and money, which can only be fed if blacks stay dependent – i.e., stay Democrats. Why else turn Rosa Parks’ funeral into a political opportunity instead of a celebration of courage?

The corrupt leadership didn’t respect Rosa when she was alive either. In 2002, Parks’ landlord threatened to evict her from her high-rise apartment after her caregivers missed rental payments. Where was the NAACP? Where was Jackson in 1994, after a drug addict kicked in her door, then beat and robbed her?

The modern civil-rights leaders are, one might say, the illegitimate children of W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois was a founding member of the NAACP, and notorious for his publicized attempts to discredit the late great Booker T. Washington.

Washington called on blacks to focus on hard work, character and increasing economic power, knowing that political power and civil rights would naturally follow.

DuBois believed in the higher education of a “Talented Tenth” of black Americans – a group of elites to guide black America into “higher” civilization. DuBois himself was an elite socialist who believed in racial and political agitation to achieve his ends.

DuBois outlived Washington, and, as we can see from the state of black Americans today, his warped ideas won out – blacks today are led about by leaders whose main purpose is fomenting political and racial agitation.

Interestingly enough, the NAACP and Rosa Parks were not the catalyst for the civil-rights movement. Months before Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her bus seat, four black women – Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith – served as plaintiffs in the legal action challenging Montgomery’s segregated public transportation system. It was their case – Browder vs. Gayle – not Rosa Parks’ – that a district court and, eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court used to strike down segregation on buses.

The most well known of the four plaintiffs was Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old high-school student who refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was then handcuffed, arrested and forcibly removed from the bus.

The NAACP, while initially excited about pursuing a boycott and civil action around Colvin’s case, pulled back their support after it was revealed that the Colvin was pregnant out of wedlock.

The community leaders decided to later use Rosa Parks, who was a “pillar” in the community, to challenge Montgomery’s segregated bus system by re-enacting what Colvin had done months prior.

The NAACP has received a public relations boon from member Rosa’s story, yet ironically had Booker T. Washington’s vision of character and racial healing not been successfully attacked by DuBois, by Rosa’s time there would have been likely no Jim Crow laws left to fight.

Of course, without political and racial chaos, there would also be no need for partisan, racist organizations like the NAACP. And that is why black conservatives are attacked to this day, while hateful, racial agitators are glorified.

The legacy and name of Rosa Parks will continue to be used to advance the aims of the corrupt liberal elite, specifically in the lead-up to the 2006 elections. Shame on them and their pretense of love for Rosa and for America.